Dragons Unbound
by Mjoern
Summary: Sequel to DONOVAN94's Dragon-Bound. The war of the ring is raging, Sauron is cornered and is no match for the combined powers of the free people and the dragon riders. Smaug is still prisoner of Saphira's spell. Victory seems certain for the force of good. That is unless Aureye has something to say about it.
1. Chapter 1

**This is an unofficial sequel of the Crossover story Dragon-Bound By DONOVAN94.**

 **Even tho I will try to write it in a way that makes it easy to follow for those that didn't read the original story, I strongly suggest anyone interested by this sequel to read the masterpiece that inspired it because it is nothing short of the best fanfiction on the site.**

 **...**

 _Sometimes I wonder : Does my father miss me as much as I miss him ?_

 _But right now, I have important matters to attend to !_

 _«_ **You are forsaken ! Is that your mate ? And you are their kid ! Your father can't protect you, miserable peeble !** **Trust me, t** **hey never can !** **You are forsaken too ! You too** **by the way** **, my level of forsakability is off the charts !** **Too bad you don't have arms to shoot lethal projectile at me, mouahahahah !** **You cannot escape the fangs of doom of Lord Aureye the magnificent** **est and terriblest of the calamities** **! All you have left is death** **by** **chew-chew** **!** **Grrrr !** _»_

The purple little rascal was eyeing a bunch of rocks that he was dead set on chewing to dust !  
He lunged and the mineral family met its doom -or multiplied depending on the perspective- in a flurry of sparks.

« _D_ _id he just say 'Grrrr !'_ _.. he's so weird, he only has two legs_ _and plays with rocks because he can't catch mice, what a loser !_ _.._ »

« _And look at his wings, that looks painful !_ _I guess if I didn't have fore legs, I would use my wings to walk too.._ »  
« _Did you know he doesn't even have a rider_? »

« _Hey, guys let's mess with him ! »_

 _« Hey purple freak ! »_

He turned his head around sniffing for a magic trace left by the telepathic link :

 _«_ Who said that ? »

No answer came.

He looked down at the unscathed peeble who just lost its whole family and narrowed his eyes :

« You stay right there ! »

He went to meet the closest dragons to his location, three hatchlings, born a few hours ago during the last ceremony, they were already bigger than him despite that he was already three years old.

« Was that one of you that just insulted me ? »

« _Ew ! look guys, his lips are moving ! »_

They chuckled..

« _You think I can't_ _intercept_ _telepathic conversation, I have years of practice with magic »_

He answered using his own telepathy, bulking his presence in their mind and forcing them to look at his eyes using dragon spell for added effects.

« _Ahah guys ! he think he can intimidate us ! Our riders are elves, Freak ! Good luck beating us at magic_ »

He looked past them and saw three stuck up elves drinking together at the pot after the ceremony and banquet.

« Then, I'll bite you ! It's super effective on elvish chairs ! »

He lunged at them but they threw him off his talons with a flap of their wings..

« _Did that freak just compare us to furnitures ? »_

 _Ugh !_ He had gotten up :

« Four legs, weird sticks on their back, not quite big enough to sit on but will be sat on anyway and keep falling.. you fit the definition of elvish chairs perfectly ! »

They weren't happy.

Aureye was panting, clawing at the ground trying to keep up against the wind.

The apparent leader and meanest one, a golden male, threw him off with another flap.

« _We're not falling !We're flying !_ »

Another powerful gust..

« _You're falling ! Again ! And again !_ »

And again.

Another of the hatchling, a smaller red one, joined the fun, trying to have the gust of his wings caught under the wings of the even smaller purple dragon.

He was succesful and Aureye was thrown on his back.

« Nah you're the ones falling continuously, that's why you flap, if you weren't falling you wouldn't need to flap. I on the other hand am just break-dancing safe on the ground.. »

Now they had it with him :

« _Well, time to win this argument, you forked tongue freaky 'terriblest' shit ! Let's see how safe you are as you 'break-dance' towards the edge of this cliff ! »_

 _« Oye, dude ! What if he can't fly ? I mean look at those shitty stumps he has for wings ! »_

« Flying is overrated ! It looks dumb anyway ! »

Now Aureye was crying.

But suddenly the assault ceased as another red dragonling crashed the golden one in the back and pinned him down.

« _How dare you do that to my brother ! You have a death wish !?_ »

« Calvar ! Bro ! »

It was indeed Aureye's brother : Calvar. Apart from each other, they also had a sister, a very bright little dragoness called Mythriel and their mother was none other than Saphira.  
Ruling out uncle Eragon and especially uncle Thorn wouldn't be very fair either.

However the golden bully wasn't phazed at all, he smirked on the inside :

« _Fetch.._ »

Then blasted a wave of fire towards the little wimpering form of our protagonist, who was blown away past the edge of the cliff from which it was customary for the just-born dragons to take their first flight after the hatching ceremony.

The other young dragons were all amazed that their golden friend was already capable of blowing fire except Calvar of course who rushed towards the edge ready to jump and save his brother.

The sonic wave following a blue-ish blurred figure flying down the edge blew him backward, interrupting his course.

The golden hatchling realized he made a mistake when, as he tried to slither back to his rider inconito, a huge talon, follow up of a proportionally huge red leg, blocked his path and when the owner of said appendage snorted at him, blowing him off balance and throwing him on his flank.

…

The issue was quickly settled, it was alleged that the golden hatchling had fed off the hatred his rider had for native Ardan drakes and they were forced to take a secretly hypnotic anti-bias seminary telling a version of the history of the dragons of middle earth painting them as victims of oppression from the free folks.

…

« _Mom, when will I be able to fly ?_ »

The purple drake, saved yet again by his mother, felt inadequate, even though neither Calvar nor Mythriel were able to fly yet either despite that the had six limbs like the other dragons as they took that aspect of their anatomy from their Alagaesian blood of their mother's side.

« _Don't worry, sweetie, your father was excellent in the air, your wings are just the way they are meant to be._ »

He looked at her with a questioning mind and she realised she didn't answer his question :

« _Your father said you shouldn't leave the nest before twenty, but you three seem to be growing fine, you should be able to get it before ten._ »


	2. The Chase

**This is an unofficial sequel of the Crossover story Dragon-Bound By DONOVAN94.**

 **Even tho I will try to write it in a way that makes it easy to follow for those that didn't read the original story, I strongly suggest anyone interested by this sequel to read the masterpiece that inspired it because it is nothing short of the best fanfiction on the site.**

 **...**

Six years later..

The three siblings had grown much bigger.

Saphira's motherly instinct had long faded and her fondness only lasted thanks to the sweet memories she had with her hatchlings.

Aureye was about the size of a small whale : twenty-five meters in length and about fifteen ton of weight, Calvar and Mithriel were smaller especially Mithriel whose slimmer and smaller body wasn't even weighting a third of her amethyst-colored brother despite the two additional limbs.

On another note, Aureye's sister and brother had been able to start flying on their own, they were far from master of flight but they were getting there while their brother never dared to make the jump.

Calvar had given up hope for his brother but that wasn't the case for Mithriel.

She landed in the cold desolate territory, the charred remains of trees had been bitten to a black dust making the air very hard to breath, no life was to be seen, the rays of the sun, so beautiful and warm everywhere else dared not to show themselves.

She had brought a gift that she had hidden in her mouth hoping that this time her brother wouldn't catch the scent right away like the other times.

Aureye was lying on his back in his own personal cave, his head rested on a too small mound of gold that had lost its shine. He was munching on a mythril vest frustrated at how gentle he was forced to be so as to not break it like the others. Those things were terribly expensive and he wasn't so small that he could sneak around stealing stuff without anyone noticing anymore.

Sure he thought about raiding merchants or claiming a territory close to a trade route and asking for a tax for passage so as to not be considered a scourge but all those plans remained just that, plans..

" _Aureye? You here, brother_?" asked the young dragoness whose bright whiteness had been dulled by the black dust.

He hummed an affirmative, for a very long time, he had liked it better to use his vocal cords rather than telepathy to speak.

She frowned when she saw his big belly:

" _Oh my! Look at you, you're even fatter than you were a month ago! You can't keep going like that! it's not healthy!_ "

"Give me that gift you brought and leave me alone, I don't need to be healthy _"_

She frowned harder.

" _And what do you need then?"_

"Mythril and gold, that's the only things I need, and stop bringing me amethyst, I like being black, I am not taking a bath and no you can't groom me _"_

" _How did you? That was luck isn't it, you couldn't have smelled it in my mouth.."_

She opened and handed him a beautiful golden necklace with a radiant amethyst crimped in.

Then frowned even harder as she realized he wasn't even going to move to take it.

" _Are you kidding me?! Aureye, Below all that fat and cinder dust, you are a beautiful dr.."_

" **I AM NOT BEAUTIFUL! I AM A FREAK!** _Leave me alone_ _"_

They were silent for a moment.

But she was a bold youth, she wasn't going to back down like that.

" _And you think you don't need to be strong? Tell me, don't you understand we're at war? You could be the strongest dragon!_ _What if Sauron tries to capture you?_ _Being a freak or not, that's up to you! Show them how great you can be!_ _"_

"I am not afraid of Sauron besides he doesn't need to capture me If he wants to talk to me, he can, whenever he wants _"_

Now she was worried, she scouted his mind :

" **Hey! Stay OUT!** " But his mind was easily dominated and she got what she wanted.

She saw a ring and the presence of Sauron prevented her to see more.

"It's just a gift" he wasn't on his belly anymore, he was arching his back, on the defensive.

It was their first time. Calvar had already fought for real against Aureye before but Mithriel had never been serious.

She tried to justify herself:

" _If you had been training like_ _me and Calvar_ _, you would have been strong enough to fend me off your mind. Now, give it to me._ "

"Go away.. _"_

She couldn't believe her ears.

" _You're meddling with Sauron and you tell me 'Go away' as if all of it was normal!?_ _"_

Aureye knew that if he hadn't said something weird, she'd have just repeated her order to give her the ring. Now that she had spoken her bafflement, it was his turn and he could lead her wherever he wanted..

"You know, he was just thankful that I hadn't betrayed the flame of Thangorodrim in favor of the Bound flame of Alagaesia.. he's our great grand-father! The creator of the dark flame that was passed on to our father and to us!"

She snapped at him :

" _I don't want to hear any of that! Our father abandoned us!"_

" **NO He didn't! He's under a powerful spell!** "

Now the size difference really showed, he was up and had a menacing presence.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes :

" _Sure.. who told you that? Sauron? Don't believe anything he says!_ "

"Well, if you don't believe **me** , maybe we should go check it out.."

He thought she wasn't going to pass out on a chance to have him move from his den which is why he used that ace right at this moment when he had the opportunity to shift the source from Sauron to himself.

" _But.. Mom said we should never, ever, under any circumstances pay visit to him!_ "

However, as much as it tempted her, she wasn't particularly one to disobey.

"We aren't going to see him, just smell for a trace of the spell!"

He carefully avoided to bring back Sauron.

She thought for a moment and sighed, she wanted to leave this place, she wanted him to leave this place, she wanted to have him show how bright and jolly he can be.. she wanted to bathe in the sun, roll around in the grass, hunt with him..

 _If that can prove him that mom is right and Sauron is a liar.._

 _If that can give him some exercise, bring a bit of joy and positivity in his life.._

"Alright, we're going but whatever it is we find there, you're not getting back here before you can fly!"

She was confident he wouldn't want to bury himself in this dark hole once he's discovered the joy of flight.

He considered the condition for a second.

"I can swear that I'll let you teach me"

She gave him a satisfied smile and they headed off.

…

"Dang! I miss my gold! So.. how's it going for you, sis?"

They had been walking for a while, mostly thinking about what to say to each other..

Mithriel was certainly trying to plan how their discussion about the ring should go and how she could keep control of it, she was smart enough to know that her brother was very good at having her where he wanted, at least that's what said brother was thinking she was doing..

He sure was pretty confident in his abilities but he still knew that Mithriel was smarter than him. She had shown him time and time again when they were younger.

" _Ow c'mon, No one is going to get to your awful place or dirty their hand with your gold_ " she chuckled a bit..

" _Not much happening in my life, I'm like learning stuff here and there under the tutelage of Lord Elrond.. Calvar has much more interesting things to tell : he's fighting alongside the dragonriders, he's even killed a_ _crazy_ _huge warg nearly as big as me_ "

She knew better than to return the question..

He looked around him :

"Been a while since I saw so much green.."

" _Yeah it's really pretty_ "

"Makes me want to burn everything.."

" **-_-** "

"Make them trees all crispy.."

"-"

He had taken his mythril vest and took a little bite for added effects.

"Piss on the cinder to make sure absolutely everyone get the message : this is my desolation, trespass at your own crisp"

It was obvious she was trying not to laugh..

"What's up with the **crisp** ation?"

It wasn't funny enough to make her break a fit and she was able to regain her composure with a smug look on her face.. He couldn't help but pout in disappointment.

" _Bro, you're so old school, what's up with calling your territory a 'desolation'?_ "

"Tradition! Crispy, Tradition is important, Father have a huge desolation, I want one too"

He knew she hated when he called her "Crispy", it was the first nickname she ever had but to be fair, it was from a time when Aureye called everything and everyone with crisps related monickers.

Mithriel stopped.

"uh? what's going on?"

" _Shh! Something's coming_ "

 _Dang that's bad, if anyone sees I'm out, they'll go for my hoard!_

"Where?"

As if to answer his question, something that looked like a warg running on top of its lungs came into view from the other side of the hill in the distance.

"Fiew! Just a wolf! my treasure's safe!"

… Followed by a troupe of mounted hunters..

"… Of course!"

" _C'mon, don't worry about that, they're focused on their thing and it's like four kilometers away, they probably didn't recognize you_ "

"I am twice your size and I am black!"

" _No, you're just dirty.._ "

"Irrelevant.. I am darker and bigger."

" _Doesn't change the fact that most of this darkness comes from dust which can easily be washed away.. wink.. wink.._ "

"But purple is so girly!"

" _Aury! Do you realize how rare amethyst scales are? I would love to have your color!_ "

"I know.. and you're a girl so.. Hey! Ho! The fuck you think you're doing!?"

The warg and his pursuers had reached them and the furry rascal had no qualms against using him as a shield. Certainly the mounted archers wouldn't risk firing next to the wings and belly of a dragon.

"If anyone's acting weird it's you! They see you out of your desolation! Away from your hoard! Kill them!" retorted the bull-sized canine.

"Wait a.. Wow! you're crafty! But I can't.. my sister here won't let me and beside I can also do that : "

He intruded the mind of the horses to have them buck off their rider and flee away but it had no effect other than getting steely resolute gaze from the equines..

"Wow! These are some badass horses!"

" _Well_ _Aury-_ _bro, they just went through a bit of mental fortitude and magic defense_ _TRAINING_ _, it's a natural reaction, part of the healthy skepticism towards the sudden popularity of Alaegesian dragon-kind in Arda.. You should know that.. Keyword, TRAINING_ " she let that sink in, a smug look on her face.

Aureye wasn't satisfied by this answer, he already knew that.

He looked the horses in the eyes, he inspected their riders.. Finely dressed elves, no mythril but high quality arrows and blades.

 _I need to appear shocked._

 _It wouldn't be wise to allow them to realize I got it.._

 _Afterall, why would they also train against Ardan dragon-spell since me and father are the only active users is an easy question to answer, how they were able to find a way to train against dragon-spell is the true question..  
If I kill them, whoever they work for will automatically assume I know they've been preparing to take me down because I wouldn't kill elves without being threatened. Furthermore, they took the risk to show themselves to me and expose themselves to my dragon-spell.. all for that wolf.. He's an ally! _

" _Er.. Bro? You okay?_ "

 _Dang! I've been thinking for too long! I can't explain her, she's a very bad liar but she's also very curious, can I get away with lying here? I know!_

"er.. Yeah, sure.. I didn't know that.. But I mean, isn't that a bit antagonistic? _"_

 _By the power of Diversion! They've all been fooled! Don't let the satisfaction show on your face!_

" _Ow c'mon! You can't say that wanting to keep their thoughts private and control of their bodies is antagonistic.. Mother herself acknowledged the right of the free folk to prepare and had the dragon council finance half of the training, she's also monitoring the cost to allow even humans and non-noble dwarves to have access to it.. Of course, useful beasts profit from a part of the cake"_

 _More distraction! let's feint annoyance! Needs to sound genuine in context.._

"Ow so that's how it is! 'Useful beasts' vs 'free folk', the free folk have the 'right' to defend themselves while beasts only 'profit from the cake', interesting choice of words, sis.. And then you wonder why I don't want to have anything to do with that little war of theirs.. The free folk is no better than the force of evil! _"_

" _C'mon! I meant they pay for it, that thing isn't free except for some horses and eagles.. That's quite the privilege you know!"_

 _The horses nodded proud of their lineage._

" _Ow 'privilege'! 'Privilege' now! Well MAYBE they wouldn't have to have this 'privilege' if they were actually paid for their service!"_

One of the horse had enough of the disrespect towards its master and intervened :

" _And how is food and shelter not.."_

But it was quickly interrupted by Aureye who tried to appear as triggered and flabbergasted as he could :

" **HOW DARE YOU!** You talk to me as if your words were worth my time and consideration! For a mere **SLAVE!** to have the balls to talk to me! **ME!** one of the last wild fire drake!" he boasted intimidating and booming his voice like thunder, then chuckled darkly as the tip of his tail approached the daring buck..

"Now now.. talking about balls.." He pushed the horse over to expose its belly. The rider jumped and tucked an arrow ready to shoot. The other ones had readied their bow too but Aureye, confident paid no mind to the threat.

"Well well well! What do we have here? Lucky Boy! You weren't cut up!.. Here you are! with the balls to talk back to one of the most powerful being in existence YET! You aren't brave enough to free yourself from your chains.. There is food a-plenty, free, everywhere for you, you don't have to hunt for it, you just have to lower your head! The forest is plenty enough shelter for your need and were you a weakling, wouldn't it be good for your kind for you to be taken by the fangs?! Now let's see how appreciated you are, Slave! If I did that to a human or an elf, your little masters here wouldn't hesitate a second to shoot at me"

The sharp end of his tail went to stroll around the horse's privates.

"I'm going to cut you up and no one is going to defend you, do you know why? Because that's what happen when beasts speak up and face off against a superior authority.. In this unfair world that you defend, when assigned lower beings don't respect the hierarchy, they loose their balls! Your masters and fellow slaves know I'm right, if I don't do it here and now, you'll probably be castrated for daring to talk in front of a supreme authority anyway.. Your only chance is to fight and escape but that was probably bred out of your blood, right? Here I am threatening your bodily integrity and yet you don't even think about fleeing away or fighting back.."

"Blah blah blah blah! Shut the fuck up! I can talk back to you because you're just another beast, No! you're lower than a beast! you're a mere worm, filthy fork tongue! I am guilty of no disrespect, you're the one that should be castrated here! So much strength that you could serve the free folk with and here you are doing nothing, castrate me if you want, I'm not meant to be a breeding stud anyway.."

"THE WARG IS GETTING AWAY!"

The riders resumed the chase.

"Let me go, I need to be useful!"

"No"

"LET ME GO YOU WORM!"

"Your rider mounted another horse, they're gone.. already a kilometer away.."

"Let me.."

"I am going to reform you, you'll be free, you'll be great.."

In an instant, the cocky stallion's throat was shredded.. he tried to muster a cry to call for reinforcement when he realized how it happened but he was mute and dying.

Aureye was shocked :

"But I.. I told him I would, he was restrained, it's my fault he couldn't defend himself because I.. No.. Why?!"

The huge corrupted wolf stood there with a big chunk of bloody mess in his jaws..

"Don't worry, he wouldn't have been able to defend himself anyway, I am not one to be messed up with, you don't need to know my name and you won't know how I made them think I was getting away either.."

" _I saw it : illusion magic, wasn't quite as good as I expected from a legend like you, Greymos Draugluinsson_ "

 _No way! I have three thousand years of practice and a mere-born dragonling saw through it! What kind of ridiculous magical affinity does she have?_

Aureye had a perplex look for his sister and sighed :

"Sis, knowing things is great but you're too proud for your own good, it's even more important to keep your enemies unaware of what you know. _"_

" _uh? Well okay but then why would you tell that piece of knowledge in front of him?"_

"Because I've already secured the information that he knows I'm a good strategist and also that he's not an enemy."

"Hehe not bad, kid, so you realized I wasn't the real prey of those hunters, right?"

"Are they after my treasure?"

If he could face-palm, the immortal pup would do it right now.

"No! Moron! They just want to kill you because you're a threat : your meddling with Sauron is known to some important people in the white council"

"Don't believe anything he says, Aureye! Mother wouldn't allow it and also this is illegal, they wouldn't try to kill you, you have an official authorization from the dragon council to occupy and desolate your territory as you see fit. Illegal dragon slaying is a very grave matter that the white council too take very seriously, Even Ardan drakes are allowed to live wild and free as long as they refrain from causing harm to the free folk. They even have the right to kill trespassers on their territory if the territory was approved by the dragon council, approval that they can ask for easily and they just have to justify 10 years of occupation which is easily done by analysis of.."

"Mith, sis.. I know.. I know the law, okay?.. but these horses are trained against dragon-spell, Father and me are the only known users, don't you think it's a bit weird?"

"Obviously you were manipulated into thinking that was the case! it's impossible to train against dragon-spell, there is no trainer available, as you said, Smaug and you are the only known users! don't be a fool, you're a great strategist, you know that you are more likely to believe something and will put less attention to verifying the claim if you believe you're the one that came up with it.."

"So you think that Sauron would be able to infiltrate horses trained against dragon-spell into an elven mounted unit just to make me believe elves want to kill me?"

"Of course if you say it like that it's going to sound ridiculous.. although as you said, making sure your enemies do not know of what you know and your abilities is a big part of strategy, right? So who are our enemies, if there is another dragon-spell user, for who do you think he would work? Sauron.. Also I think it's a bit suspicious that they'd just follow the warg to us.. I mean, it's not in their interest to allow you to know their horses are dragon-spell resistant, so why would they do it?"

"The point isn't to make sure one theory is 100% correct, the point is just to keep the most likely in mind to be safe and test it further later on, then potentially see if it has any predictive capabilities but I am definitely going to keep in mind the possibility that Sauron might be raising bright elven horses and somehow infiltrate them just to be safe, ok?"

Greymos the warg interjected :

"Anyway, they'll probably come back, they needn't know I stayed here, you need to camouflage my bite on the horse's neck.. wait, I am a bit hungry, are you okay camouflaging more? Maybe you want the balls for yourself, it's my favorite part, I'm pretty sure castration was invented to spite me.."

"er.. ow.. yeah, sure help yourself"

Aureye couldn't help but think how his sister would have reacted if the carcass wasn't that of a horse.

They ate meat of course, they had killed many times already, he had even eaten a few humans that he knew whose death wouldn't be traceable to him. But Aureye had always been against the idea that some preys are just off limits for some entirely subjective reasons.

A few minutes later they would part ways with their new acquaintance and resume heading toward their father.

What mystery would await them there?


	3. Conflicts

" _You're still thinking about that horse?_ "

"I hate to admit it but he was quite sexy for a slave"

Mithriel sighed : " _so you don't want to talk about it?_ "

"I don't.. and before you say anything : yes it was my fault.. MY plan backfired on him and Greymos had to do it so he isn't to blame.."

" _At least you're not thinking about your gold_ "  
She joked only to be met with a sheepish look. She sighed again..

"Look! the mountain!"

" _Bro.. we've been walking towards it for hours, you hadn't seen it before?_ "

He paused..

"I... I don't know maybe I don't have as good an eyesight as you" he spat.

" _You need to train your eyes, bro.. watch at the furthest point away in the distance and try to get the clearest image you can get.._ "

He made an annoyed face before he told her coldly : 

"Actually I don't, I am a dragon, I am immortal, I don't need to do anything"

She got annoyed too and did what everyone do when they are annoyed : a strawman!

" _Ugh! You really want to spend your life doing NOTHING!?_ "

"That's not what I said.."

" _what?! You said you didn't need to do anything!_ "

"And yet here I am talking to you.."

" _What does it have to do with anything? Alright let's not talk anymore!_ " Now she was getting agitated.. She felt insulted and wasn't interested in hearing about what he wanted to say.

"You never hear me out! I'm doing something right now : talking to you! Going to the mountain! I agreed to let you teach me flight! All of these are things I don't need to do! Is it so hard to admit when you're wrong?!"

The words seemed to have hit home.. Her expression changed from annoyed to one more neutral but deep in thought.

She wouldn't say anything for a while.

…

Somewhere to the north, in Mordor a fortress was besieged..

Leading the assault, fought Captain Auruin and Elwen, the self-proclaimed hundred bull-troll slayers, a talented albeit very vicious forty-five meters long bulky golden male and his very stuck up elvish rider. Under him, among many others, was Calvar, the youngling. His red body was marred in scars, results of many true shots of enemy wind lances and horns licking at his body. He didn't look like he was as far from adulthood as he actually was despite the title bestowed upon him by his bully of a captain..  
He even probably looked pretty old but in a good way, he looked strong and experienced and was pretty much around the size of the young combat ready alageasian dragons.

Sauron's force had found ways to deal with dragons. Trolls were bred with a changeling that was yet to be identified so that they became huge beasts with fireproof black fur and red eyes and were mixed with bulls to have a thicker skull and horns to kill the dragons with and powerful bull hind legs capable to help them jump higher and faster. This new breed now looked more like giant minotaurs or Balrogs than trolls..

Calvar didn't survive all these battles and all his scars by pure dumb luck : he was a capable fighter with a very functional and economic way to maneuver in the air despite his lackluster speed and ability to perform fancy tricks.  
He knew what to look for, what to expect and how to twist his body at the right moment to have the potentially lethal arrows cut a few scales instead..

Auruin swoop down on the horns of a troll. The beast thought the golden dragon was silly and jumped to gore him in the belly, at the last moment however the glorious bully twisted his body and caught the horns with his talons.  
The dark beast thrashed around and punched the captain in the neither region.  
Auruin was a vengeful and sadistic wyrm but if you asked him, it would be for a practical purpose that he did whip the bull-troll in the groin at this moment. According to him it makes it easier to lift the trolls suddenly in mid-air. The point of it all was to use the beast as a shield against orcish dragon-lances.

The troll bellowed in pain only once, the three dragon-lances had one of his lung, his spine and his skull pierced. It stopped the bellow but merely made the thrashing more erratic.

One of the arrows' tip protruded from the gaping mouth of the beast and licked the scales of the vain captain.

A huge tongue protruded out of it too, but as it lolled uselessly from the dead beast barely touching Auruin's belly, it wasn't denting the beautiful golden scales of the dragon and thus its licking wasn't quite as annoying.

Elwen was known for his fancy and bad-ass 'jump from the dragon and kill everything' but this time he outdid himself :

Thanks to his trusty golden silk rope attached to the equally as golden saddle of his equally as trusty dragon, he jumped from the latter's back in an arc in the air towards the head of the beast and reached it just in time before his dragon threw the corpse into the enemies' lines.

Elwen had let go of the rope and jump from the head to reach for the ground before the corpse, free-falling, he cut the head of an orc dragon-slayer that was about to pull the trigger of a ballista.

The huge corpse of the troll crashed on the ground behind the bold elven captain, crushing many enemies on the battle field and bounced high enough to roll in the air above the elf's head without breaking the wind-lance or fazing Elwen, it then continued its course rolling, crushing many other enemies as Elwen took control of the ballista and shot another Orc dragon slayer in the head, the disproportionate projectile had the orc's head implode on contact before he could kill Auruin who was lying on his back after he has crashed as he wasn't able to keep flying after throwing a troll since it put him in the air in a position with his back towards the ground.

It wasn't such a bad thing because he knew he could count on Elwen to protect him while in this state and also had the benefit to crush even more enemies where the troll's corpse wouldn't hit. __

It was an effective strategy to draw the shots, nullify them, break through the lines and allow the other dragon-riders to wreak havoc and cleanse everything.

They did just that..

Calvar saw a rather small troll lifting a huge ten ton boulder, preparing to throw it..  
He dived and whipped a hand of the troll, the boulder fell on his head, dazing him. Calvar used the opportunity to try and blind the troll with his talon but an old and powerful looking warg, used the troll as a spring board to reach for the young red dragon's throat.. However, Calvar was a tough cookie and hammered his horned chin into the back of the warg, he hit nothing : the warg had disappeared.

 _What was that?! Magic?!_

He tried to scout for the presence but the troll wasn't going to stay idly put forever.

 _I should take some height, it's not safe.. Tss! Could have been my first Troll kill!_

As he cursed internally he flapped before the troll could grab his legs and prepared for the Gore jump as he had been taught : he positioned his hind-legs as if he was about to land and used the vertical momentum of the troll's jump to make taking height easier.

 _Piece of cake! Hehe!_

But that was when something tore apart inside of him : it was incredibly painful and it paralyzed him, it was something powerful, magic and ancient and he recognized it instantly despite how different it was from his memories:

 _Father!?_

He started to contort himself like a mad creature and fall..

The minotroll grabbed his tail, punched him in the guts and pinned him down. Then he realized the dragon he had at his feet was frozen as he didn't even try to defend himself..

He stomped his right hoof on Calvar's neck and grabbed his head, then he pulled and twisted..

…

In another place, at another time..

"So do you smell it?" asked the dirty purple dragon.

Mithriel had been waiting for that moment. She had prepared for it. She knew Aureye would be a tough opponent to bargain with but it was now or never.. She would get him tell her everything!

" _What I smell is danger, Aureye_ "

"C'mon you agreed to come here for that reason!"

"Wait! Ow now I get it, you had me come here to verify your theory because I have better magic smell!"

She wasn't pleased.

"well yes.. I did.. okay, I did just that.. But.." __

 _"There is no But! Aureye, You need to tell me everything!"_

He sighed.. __

 _"_ Okay, I manipulated you, I don't have the ring, I just wanted you here, there and now, please.. I'm sure there is something! _"_

 _"I am going home!"_

 _"_ Then I am going alone! _"_

He started to flap _.._

 _She heard it, she felt it, he as trying to carry his own weight and he was putting heart into it, they both knew he wouldn't succeed and she knew exactly why he was flapping.._

 _"You.. YOU! How much of this did you have planned?!"_ It wasn't the first time she had stuttered in telepathy but it sure was a rare occurrence..  
 _  
"_ What would you say if I told you that you'll help me, that I know you will help me, that I wouldn't be here if I didn't know you would help me.. that I am too good at knowing things to be wrong about you helping me? _"_

He kept flapping all the while. __

She was silent for a moment. _  
"Okay I get it, you have too many ways to convince me to help you.. Even just me wanting to defend the honor of our mother and prove you wrong about our father.. I can't escape it, that was a very nice trap, Aureye."_

Only then did he stop flapping and without even looking back at her, he confidently walked closer to his goal, he knew she would follow him.

Aureye was fake. He had learned to put on masks to protect himself. He hadn't learned to put them off.

He cared about a lot of things. His family one of them. But he would never show anyone exactly how much and for what reasons he cared for anything.

Aureye was fake.

Mithriel knew it but just realized exactly how much.  
Thinking back to everything he said during their journey together : their encounter with Greymos, his outbreak for the horse as well as other discussions they had, about hunting, the right to claim territories and other political hot topics.

She had opened up to him, her opinions, her views on the world.. he had learned many things..

Now she was left wondering :  
 _Brother, Is mystery the only thing I'll ever know about you?_ __

After a relatively short walk following an unidentified magic afterthought, Mithriel finally picked up something as tangible as a name can be. __

Her puzzlement didn't go unnoticed :

"Found something, Sis?" __

 _"I don't know yet, I've never felt that sort of magic, it feels like a chain without identity binding a darkness using its own body, I can't find the root of neither the dark nor the chain.."  
_  
"its own body? You mean the darkness?"

The more she look into the abyss, the emptier she felt, she could barely breath anymore..

" _It's.. intertwined in the aether.. this spell .. I don't think anything could ever break it.."  
_

"Well I do have an idea.."

 _"_ _NO! You really have no idea! Trust me! I know my stuff when it comes to magic! Whatever THIS is, it should never be tampered with.. The most powerful magic aren't the ones with a strong smell, they are the hardest to decipher, that's why we can't feel the gods!_ _"_

"Gods don't exist, magic is just a matter of will, someone just need to will it hard enough."  
 _  
"_ _Well NOOOOO.. like really.. what you describe is wild magic and it has never been able to achieve anything._ "

He chuckled a bit :  
"Just follow me, you will soon be humbled.. the wild invented everything you hold dear"

 _"I agreed to come here to smell for a trace of the spell, going forward means death! I will not be manipulated into following you, I won't put up with your suicidal behavior, I will beat you up and lock you down before I see you kill yourself for pride!"_

 _Sorry, Mith.. it's not gonna happen,_ _I don't know about the consequences but at least I'm willing to face them._ _._ _I don't even remember why I brought you here, probably because I didn't have the courage to do it alone.. I am the terriblest brother._ __

He roared and it tore the sky. Within the mountain, a father stirred.


End file.
